The present invention relates to image processing, and more particularly to segmentation and sign language synthesis for facilitating communication between hearing and deaf individuals.
Sign language, an important form of communication for deaf individuals, is not normally understood by hearing individuals. An important question is how to facilitate communication between the two groups, particularly through visual communication technology. Research has been conducted in methods for coding and transmitting signing images across telephone lines. Examples of this type of work include D. Pearson, "Visual Communication Systems For The Deaf," IEEE Transaction On Communications, vol. Com-29, no. 12, pp. 1986-1992 (December, 1981), and G. Sperling, "Video Transmission of American Sign Language and Finger Spelling: Present and Projected Bandwidth Requirements," IEEE Transaction On Communications, vol. Com-29, no. 12, pp. 1993-2002 (December, 1981). Methods have ranged from transmitting hand outlines, such as described in M. W. Whybray et al., "A DSP Based Videophone For the Hearing Impaired Using Valledge Processed Pictures," Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, pp. 1866-1869 (1989), to transmitting signing motion parameters, an example described in J. Xu et al., "A Method For Synthesizing Animation to Transmit Sign Language By Intelligent Communication," Electronics and Communications in Japan, Part 3, vol. 76, no. 2, pp. 108-117 (February, 1993). Other research has focused on processing at the receiver, such as sign language recognition and synthesis. Articles which discuss sign language recognition include E. Ohira et al., "A Segmentation Method For Sign Language Recognition," IEICE Transactions On Information and Systems, vol E78-D, no. 1 (January, 1995) and T. Starner et al., "RealTime American Sign Language Recognition From Video Using Hidden Markov Models," Proceedings of the International Symposium on Computer Vision, pp. 265-270 (1995). Articles which discuss synthesis include M. Waldron et al., "Parsing Method For Signed Telecommunication," IEEE Engineering In Medicine & Biology Society 11th Annual International Conference, pp. 1798-1799 (1989), and A. Downton et al., "Image Analysis For Model-Based Sign Language Coding," Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Image Analysis & Processing, pp. 637-644 (1992). The problem with the synthesis approaches has been their complexity, i.e., they are based on complex graphics which require high CPU processing times.
Therefore, there exists a need for a less complex approach to allow deaf and hearing individuals to communicate.